Minigame Autopsy V3

1. Table of Contents2. Overview3. The BIG Problem4. Boosting5. The Solution to Boosting6. Spotlight7. The Solution to Spotlight8. The Trouble With PvP9. The Fix for PvP10. Other Problems11. The Solutions12. Reward Suggestions

A special thanks to the following players whose suggestions and support have been crucial to this campaign: -

Lord Drakan

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Ladyofhonor

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Jmod-not-to-be-named

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Rikornak

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Yusou Bhoroi

Additionally, please show Lord Drakan's thread some love! He has some wonderful insights and is a big advocate for minigames:

Fist of Guthix, Stealing Creation, Soul Wars. Remember those? I do. I recall hours spent as a noob having my ass handed back to me on a plate only to respawn, come running back and do it all over again. I loved it -we all did. Now? Empty.

But this is old news. Jagex took a tentative step in the right direction with the introduction of Spotlight and Thaler but the update was misguided at best. In the end it did more to harm minigames than good. It was a duct tape and glue fix on an even bigger underlying issue. All minigame reworks since then have been equally futile. Pest Control was given a rework, weeks after it’s release it had returned to its former abandoned state. Barbarian Assault was reworked -even given another mode but was dead shortly after release. Many argue that this is due to a shift in the playerbase interest -that bossing and PvM is the new “thing”. I assert that they couldn’t be more wrong. Strip away the minigame label and what is Pest Control but a raids? Barbarian Assault but a boss? Did you know Barrows is technically a minigame? And barrows to this day even remains semi-relevant.

If reviving minigames is something you feel strongly about, please drop a support. We need to show Jagex that this is something important to us! Then maybe, if this thread and others like it can garner enough attention we will see the changes and updates needed to revitalize minigames.

Now before you crucify me, let me clarify my previous statement: Tradeable rewards. So why do people love to fight Araxxor but haven’t fought the Penance Queen in years? Both are fun, right? The problem is, they haven’t been given a reason to play Barbarian Assault. But possibly more importantly, they haven’t been given a reason to come back. Besides the Completionist requirements, there isn’t a reason to come back. Ever. Most people don’t care to obtain the pet. There are better alternatives to the insignias. Most people already have these things. What they need is a reason to come back -not just once, but again and again. We all have more lucrative, more effective activities to take our time.

I propose that a “drop” mechanic of sorts be implemented to minigames. To work, the accompanying “drop” tables

MUST

employ the following:

1) More

RELEVANT

rewards2)

DESIRABLE

rewards specific to

EACH

minigame.3)

DEGRADABLE

and

CONSUMABLE

rewards that encourage players to return.4)

TRADEABLE

rewards that encourage players to return and also attracts players more intent on making money. Making them untradeable isnt an incentive just a pain.5) It is also important to note that these drops should also have eligibility requirements. I mean to say lvl 3’s should not be getting end-game “drops”. I.E. A new prayer that requires lvl 80 prayer to be eligible for the drop.6) “Drop” chance would be multiplied based on how well you perform, encouraging

COMPETITION

and active gameplay.7) Achievement-based rewards

This could be implemented immediately in Barbarian Assault and Pest Control the more unboostable minigames. Make insignias tradeable? Maybe even void armor for the sake of the minigame?

But of course the solution is not that simple. PvP content in particular is problematic.

An excerpt from a reddit post:

"If minigames could be made similarly rewarding, yet unboostable, they could become just as popular as PvM, and people would still choose between them based on what they feel is the most fun of all the end game content. But Jagex keep telling us that's impossible, in spite of all the most successful games on Twitch managing to do PvP that is rewarding for everyone involved and gets them all closer to their goals, yet doesn't suffer from people afking or boosting games.”

Mod Osborne responded to the post with this comment:

“As soon as you make a minigame competitive it is very, very difficult to make it unboostable. That's always been the holy grail.”

Just as a quick explanation, boosting is 'multi-logging into multiple accounts to exploit game mechanics. This includes rigging the result of minigames or farming points'. An example of this being Bounty Hunter which is abused regularly to farm points.

This is the “holy grail” for minigames. Until boosting can be eliminated they cannot introduce valuable/tradeable rewards into minigames. Else, as we’ve seen with Bounty Hunter, people will be able to farm points and acquire incredible amounts of wealth with minimal skill or effort.

There are number of ways to combat boosting, few of them are effective and fewer appealing.

1. Restrict mingames to one or two worlds. This, above all else I think is the "holy grail" for minigames. Simply put, if all players were restricted to one server, then other players would create competition and disrupt boosting. Like other popular PvP games (i.e. Fortnite) content can be both rewarding and unboostable via other players.

However, this can ONLY be possible in conjunction with these three things:- Jagex creates a centralized Minigame Hub (confirmed).- Rewards are buffed exponentially to draw more players in.- [Maybe] The minigame in spotlight would be the only minigame with the drop mechanic active.

There are of course two inherent problems with a single server for minigames. One being lag and the other not being able to hold custom games with friends/clans/etc. I believe I have a solution for both. - Make all minigames instanced like Stealing Creation so that the massive number of players doesn't effect your gameplay. - Something similar to the Ring of Kinship allowing you to form your own games. Possibly even make rules like at the Duel Arena.

2. Random opponents selected for you. In games like PUBG your opponents are chosen for you and therefore you cannot boost off your alts or friends. Custom games would still be possible but wouldn't have access to the drop table.

3. A minimum player requirement. Most minigames already employ this, implement it where needed and raise where necessary.

4. Rewards based on proficiency. Reward points for a kill yes, but perhaps reward more for how well you do it. By how much damage you do, how much damage you mitigate, how long you last, how much damage you take without dying, etc. in other words make it easier to obtain more points by active and competitive gameplay. This would probably be very difficult to design properly. Is this possible and to what extent?

The Spotlight and Thaler update has been a controversial topic since its release in 2015. Roughly two years after the release of EoC Jagex announced what was supposed to be the update that would resurrect minigames to their former glory. Minigames were in a bad spot at this point and many lauded spotlight to be their saving grace. The update turned out to be something of a misfire, having the exact opposite effect. It was a "duct tape and glue fix" and had two major flaws that contributed to the fall of minigames:

1. Spotlight promoted AFKing instead of actual gameplay.

Recently, I decided to play a game of Heist on spotlight. I drug two of my friends along only to discover that not a single person was actively playing. We decided to play 2 v 1 with little success -it just wasn't the same. Further the AFKing players flamed us for completing the game early.

'Nobody, actually plays''Just AFK it for Thaler'

THIS IS NOT OKAY! Does RuneScape really have so little integrity nowadays that they promote AFKing minigames? What about actual, real gameplay? Mods have even admitted that Heist was intended to by AFKed. What the fuck?

2. Forced everyone to play one specific minigame rather than what you like.

It used to be that all minigames had their own individuals communities. They would put together competitions, activities and were almost always running a game. Even after EoC these communities continued to endure. But Spotlight came along and all but obliterated them. There are still a few group chats running for the more popular ones but even these are infrequent and dwindling in number.

The problem is, everyone feels forced to play the mingame in spotlight rather than the ones they feel like playing.It's wasteful to do otherwise. Why play Stealing Creation when I can be AFKing for Thaler at Castle Wars? Not only did this ruin the gaming community it also further promotes AFKing.

The Spotlight/Thaler update was great in theory but not in practice. It didn’t revive minigames but killed them. It promotes AFKing and forces you to play a specific minigame rather than the ones you want.

Listed are a number of possible fixes that collectively or individually could fix the spotlight system.

Solution #1: Reward points based on activity/success. This could mean that certain minigames reward Thaler at a faster rate than others but that is hardly a problem. How would activity be determined? By how many points you gain?

Solution #2: Spotlight two minigames. Maybe just of the weekends? Just to give variety and make the rotations shorter. I hate waiting like a month and a half to play Stealing Creation <3.

Solution #4: Spotlight could instead could give access to that drop table/mechanic that I suggested earlier. As a result this would centralize the competition, make minigames popular and give Spotlight a purpose other than AFKing for Thaler!

Solution #5: A Minigame gives double the yield/points for the first 3 Ames you play that day.

- For those unfamiliar with the 20/80 rule, it is a statistic that states that 20% of the population make 80% of the success. I picked this up while I was in sales (shudders). I think this number can be applied to PvP, that 20% of the participants make 80% of the kills.

- This can make PvP particularly unwelcoming when certain players/teams are dominating the game. Such is the case in the wilderness where there is almost no learning curve.

Power Creep and Noobs Like Me

For those unfamiliar with "power creep", it means "the situation where updates to a game introduce more powerful units or abilities, leaving the older ones underpowered."

Beyond making minigames rewards obsolete power creep has created a divide between the players: poor and rich, new and old, casual and hardcore. It draws out the endgame, making the best content harder/longer to obtain. It places an insurmountable wall to even be able to compete against other players in PvP (granted Trickster armor and its equivalents have helped somewhat). To put it into perspective, consider this: A Godsword to a Nox Scythe is roughly what a Mithril 2h is to a Rune 2h. Not only is that a substantial gap between gears but requires roughly 200m to bridge that gap. Players often have maxed combat before they attain that amount of wealth. That isn’t even taking armor, amulets, rings, etc into consideration which will require much, much more than that.

How long might it take to acquire 100s of millions? Further the additional hours to attain the levels/quests/requirements to even be able to utilize effective money-making methods? Now, I get it, the ‘elite’ players put in their time, they spent dozens of game hours to get where they are. But minigames, which are supposed to be accessible to a wide range of players, are in reality inaccessible to the majority.

- The obvious solution would be to have a ranking system similar to PUBG Bronze<Silver<Gold<Diamond<etc or any other games that employs a similar mechanic. This pits players of similar skill levels against each other.

- Higher ranks could give access to better rewards???

- This probably wouldn't be efficient unless minigames were to become massively more popular. Perhaps if it were limited to three ranks: Novice, Intermediate, Expert.

Power Creep and Noobs Like Me

- There are two possible solutions to this and neither are popular. Know that I am not convinced either is a good idea and bring it up mainly to start some discussion. Further if the prior suggestion regarding ranks were implemented, this might not even be necessary.

1. Make Armor/Weapon stats cap at T70. What I mean by this is that anything above T70 will share the same stats as T70 weapons/armors for the duration of the game

(Refer to Power Creep section for an explanation)

.

This would simultaneously solve a second problem, that many minigames like Barbarian Assault and Pest Control have become too easy with endgame gear. This would bring back the sense of challenge that we seem to have forgotten. Wasn’t that part of the fun?

2. Make all player’s combat maxed for the duration of the game. This might not be popular among all of you but it could make a great deal of a difference. With the player-base as small as it is, it can often be difficult for lower levels to find a team for many activities as they would be nothing but a hindrance to higher levels. Additionally, higher levels often find themselves carrying their team on their shoulders. This would solve both issues and make for more even teams. Times have changed, maybe it’s time we considered this with open minds?

This was pretty effective in DoTD as far as leveling the playing-field.

I have recognized the following as being catalysts in the demise of minigames. Listed in no particular order:

- Outdated/lackluster rewards. Poor xp.- EoC killed PvP.- The community is divided between OSRS and EoC. As a result the player-base is smaller than ever. Most minigamers and PvPers migrated to OSRS.- The no xp-waste/gp-waste culture. Nobody plays for 'fun' anymore. And those who do will find it all but impossible to assemble a large enough group to play.- Combat Minigames, low levels are often put out because they cannot hope to compete against high levels. "Power creep".- Rewards don't reflect time/skill/effort on losing team, why should they come back? Just xp waste.- Unbalanced teams/teaming- AFKing Spotlight

It is my aim to address all of these, recognize where we went wrong and offer a solution.